Google Workspace

With hybrid work expected to become the norm, Google Workspace today announced a slew of upcoming features for its video conferencing service. Google Meet will see a new, “richer” laptop and desktop UI next month, while a number of AI features are coming soon. 

Following the main product getting rebranded in October, Google followed with Workspace for Education this February. G Suite for Nonprofits is now Google Workspace for Nonprofits with key productivity applications available for free.

Back in November, Google announced that Docs, Sheets, Slides, and other Workspace files will count toward storage caps. This is set to start for personal accounts on June 1, but Workspace users will be given an extension into 2022.

Amid distance learning, many educators have turned to using Google Forms for tests, quizzes, and other assignments. Google is soon adding the ability for Forms to automatically save draft progress in case users can’t complete in one sitting.

The Google Admin console is how administrators manage Google services for people in their organization, and a redesign is rolling out over the coming weeks to help modernize it. 

Last month, Google started rolling out an online revamp of Chat to free consumer accounts as part of the classic Hangouts migration. That Google Chat web redesign is now coming to paid Workspace users over the coming weeks with a number of enhancements.

Google is introducing a “new way to view and manage notifications” related to your Drive files. The hope is that users with this new notifications feed will spend less time switching between Google Drive for Android and an email app.

In addition to different applications being accessible all on one page, Google’s vision for the future of productivity involves having those services be tightly integrated together. The latest example of this will see Google suggestions for 1:1s in Chat based on Calendar.

The presenter bar in Google Slides is getting redesigned to offer a “less intrusive experience” for presenters and viewers alike. Overall, the new toolbar is more hidden and not as distracting.

Google has been working to make Assistant compatible with enterprise G Suite accounts since 2019. It started with a beta, and Google Assistant will now be generally available to all Workspace customers on Android over the coming weeks.

In October, G Suite became Workspace and last month rolled out to education customers. A new “Workspace Frontline” tier is coming as Google lays out how it wants to help users adapt to the new hybrid working environment.

Back in 2019, Google made the “Working Hours” feature in Calendar much more prominent to aid Digital Wellbeing efforts. Google Calendar is now adding support for split working hours, as well as creating repeat out of office (OOO) entries.

As distance learning continues, Google Meet is rolling out a handful of new features, including emoji reactions to help students better express themselves and more moderation controls for teachers.

Google’s rebrand of G Suite to Workspace in October first rolled out to businesses, with the promise that personal and nonprofits users would follow later. Google Workspace for Education is rolling out next with more editions that better suit the needs of schools from pre-K to the PhD level.

The search bar in Gmail is already a powerful tool, especially when using the advanced filters, and will now show associated email aliases in results.

Last month, we reported that Drive File Stream was being renamed to “Google Drive for desktop.” This name change is part of a broader move in 2021 to unify the current enterprise client with the consumer-focused Backup and Sync app that offers Google Photos upload.

After adding a “Troubleshooting” menu last month, Google Meet now has a pre-video call “green room” to “quickly preview how you’ll appear to others before entering.” Available on the desktop web, it lets you check peripheral and network status. 

Google is updating Calendar on the web with basic offline viewing functionality. This joins Gmail, Drive, and Docs/Sheets/Slides, though the new feature is currently only for Google Workspace accounts.

A handful of factors play into the quality of your video call, and Google Meet now wants to “make it easier for end users to understand how their local desktop and network environments affect meeting quality” with a new Troubleshooting menu. 

Google is touting a “more tailored experience” on a revised Meet homepage for Workspace customers that provides three precise options for creating a new meeting.

Google started the week with a big outage that took down Gmail, Drive, and all other Workspace apps. As promised, Google now has a detailed explanation on the outage and steps it will take to prevent future incidents.

With the Workspace suite of products, Google wants to leverage machine learning to boost user productivity. One such application of those automated smarts is in Google Meet with Live Captions, which are now available in four more languages.

Google is rolling out new features across Docs and other Workspace apps to increase interoperability with Word and the Microsoft Office suite. It comes as some teams might choose to use both sets of tools, while others still work with partners that don’t use cloud offerings.

While Microsoft is clearly focused on iterating the Chromium version of Edge, the company’s previous browser is still available. Google announced today that Workspace apps will cease support for Internet Explorer 11 in March.

After coming to education users in September, Google Meet attendance reports are now rolling out to enterprise customers with more insights and additional features.

Google Workspace was announced at the start of October as a rebrand of G Suite and revamped approach to office-less productivity. As part of these changes, all of Google’s Workspace apps are seeing new icons, with the rollout now underway.

The Gmail side panel today provides quick access to Calendar, Keep, and Tasks. Google is now bringing Contacts to the sidebar for Workspace and personal customers using Gmail. 

A report in the Wall Street Journal today revealed that the Biden-Harris presidential transition team has turned to Google Workspace in light of the current administration and US government not yet officially recognizing this month’s election results.

As previewed in August, Google Meet is now rolling out breakout rooms. At launch, it’s only available to Enterprise for Education customers and meant to aid distance learning.

Over the past few weeks, Google has been replacing the logos and icons of some of its most beloved services, and the public reaction has been… mixed. Some people don’t care, while others absolutely hate the new icons. If you fall into the latter group, here’s how to replace Google’s new icons for Gmail, Calendar, and other apps with the older, arguably better versions on Android, iPhone, and Chrome.

Since launch, rooms in Google Chat have had conversations grouped into threads. This approach made sense for some, but was a barrier to high-volume teams and contrasted with Slack. Google is now adding the ability to have unthreaded Chat rooms.